trick or treat

How Much Halloween Candy Will You Swipe From Kids’ Trick or Treat Bags?

October 28, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Come on, ‘fess up. What do you do? Do you just randomly grab candy out of trick or treat bags – or are you more selective? If your kids go trick or treating, when they get home do you dump everything in the bag on the table and go through it to hunt down your favorites?

Like it or not – candy rules on Halloween. Adults may dread the easy accessibility of candy – it’s everywhere – but secretly, a whole lot of us can’t wait to get our hands on our favorite kid candy.

Americans buy nearly 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween. On average, we eat 24 pounds of candy a year, probably a whole lot of it right around this time. The most popular types of candy, in order, are: chocolate, chewy candies, and hard candy.

What Do You Go For First?

Trick or Treat Bags – plastic pumpkins and colorful bags loaded with a collection of sweet memories and some dental nightmares.

If you’ve ever swiped candy from your kid’s trick or treat bag, don’t feel guilty. According to the National Confectioners Association you’re certainly not alone. Ninety percent of parents confess they occasionally dip into their kid’s stash.

And they do it big time! Parents eat one candy bar out of every two a child brings home. Favorite targets are snack-sized chocolate bars (70%), candy-coated chocolate pieces (40%), caramels (37%) and gum (26%).

How Many Calories Are In That Rick Or Treat Bag — Or Pumpkin?

It’s been estimated that, on average, a child in the US collects between 3,500 and 7,000 worth of candy calories on Halloween night.

Mathematically, it takes around 3,500 calories to gain or lose a pound, so you’re looking at around a pound or two if you would choose to eat all of those mostly sugar and fat candy calories on top of your regular meals.

It’s Just One Night …

One evening of collecting (and eating) candy certainly isn’t going to make anyone overweight or obese. But a constant bombardment of candy, sweets, and other treats can certainly lead to weight and health challenges.

Try this. Have a talk with your family – or with yourself — ahead of Trick of Treating to plan on what to do the candy collection. Is it to be a one-day free for all and then the trash — or will the candy by doled out in measured amounts over a given period of time? Do what works for your family but it helps if the kids buy into the plan.

What’s amazing is that when kids are offered the option of choosing how much and what kind of candy to eat, most of them don’t go overboard – they make their selections, eat it, and that’s it. It then helps if the candy fades from sight. It can be doled out in smaller portions day by day – or it can magically diminish in quantity or disappear entirely – just not down the hatch of an all-too-willing adult.

In Case You Want To Pick The Least Caloric Candy on Halloween . . .

October 24, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Here are the calories in some popular Halloween candy in case you want to minimize the caloric damage (you didn’t read that wrong — candy has a big range of calories and fat grams):

Brach’s Milk Maid Caramels: 4 pieces; 160 calories; 4.5 g fat
Kit Kat: Twix Miniatures (3 pieces); 150 calories; 7g fat
Butterfinger: Fun size; 100 calories; 4g fat
Snickers: Fun size; 80 calories; 4g fat
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup: Fun size; 80 calories, 4.5g fat
M&Ms: Fun size bag; 73 calories; 3g fat
Tootsie Rolls: 3 pieces; 70 calories; 1.5g fat
Brach’s Candy Corn: 11 pieces; 70 calories; 0g fat
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate: snack size .49-ounce bar; 67 calories; 4g fat
3 Musketeers: Fun size; 63 calories; 2g fat
Skittles Original Bite Size: Fun size bag; 60 calories; 0.7 g fat
Tootsie Roll Pop: 1 pop; 60 calories; 0g fat
Now and Later: 4 pieces; 53 calories; .5g fat
Peppermint Pattie: Fun size; 47 calories; 1g fat
Starburst Original Fruit Chews: 2 pieces; 40 calories; 0.8g fat
Dum Dum Pops: 1 pop; 25 calories; 0g fat

8 Great Things To Know About Candy Corn

October 10, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Infographic courtesy of www.candyusa.com — Infographic from www.candyusa.com

1. Candy corn was created in the 1880s by the Wunderlee Candy Company. It was popular among farmers who loved the corn kernel shaped candy that looked different from a lot of other candy. The Goelitz Candy Company, famous for their candy corn, began selling their brand around 1900. They still make candy corn today, but their company name has changed to the Jelly Belly Candy Company (guess what else they make!).

2. Candy corn is a type of candy that’s over 130 years old. It’s called “mellow cream,” or candy that’s made from corn syrup and sugar with a marshmallow kind of flavor. It tastes rich, but it’s actually fat-free.

3. The original three colors of candy corn — orange, yellow, and white — mimic a corn kernel although each piece of candy is about three times the size of an actual kernel. The wide side of the triangular candy is yellow, it’s orange in the middle, and the pointy end is white.

3. Although 75% of the annual candy corn production is for Halloween, you can find it year round in varying holiday colors.

Indian corn has a chocolate brown wide end, orange center and pointed white tip, often available around Thanksgiving
Blackberry cobbler candy corn can be found in eastern Canada around Halloween
Reindeer corn, for Christmas, is red, green, and white
Cupid corn for Valentine’s Day is red, pink, and white
Bunny corn for Easter is only a two-color candy, and comes with a variety of pastel bases (pink, green, yellow, and purple) with white tips all in one package.

4. Brach’s Candy Corn:

There are nineteen pieces in a serving.
A serving has140 calories (7.4 calories per kernel), zero grams of fat, 70 mg of sodium, 36 grams of carbs, and no protein.
A large bag of Brach’s candy corn is 22 ounces and has about 300 pieces.
Ingredients in Brach’s candy corn: sugar, corn syrup, confectioner’s sugar glaze, salt, honey, dextrose, artificial flavor, gelatin, titanium dioxide color, yellow 6, yellow 5, red 3, blue 1, sesame oil.

5. According to the National Confectioners Association:

candy makers will produce nearly 35 million pounds of candy corn this year
this is equal to about 9 billion individual kernels of corn, enough to circle the moon nearly 21 times if laid end-to-end
candy corn is so popular that it has its own day: October 30 is National Candy Corn Day.

6. How candy corn is made:

Originally it was made by hand.
Sugar, water, and corn syrup were cooked into a slurry (a thin mud consistency) in large kettles. Fondant (a sweet, creamy paste made from corn syrup, sugar, and water) and marshmallow were whipped in to give it a smooth texture and a soft bite.
The hot mixture was poured into “runners,” or hand-held buckets that held 45 pounds of candy mixture. Men called “stringers” walked backwards as they poured the steaming mixture into trays coated with cornstarch and imprinted with kernel-shaped molds. They made three passes; one each for the orange, white and yellow colors.
Today, the recipe is much the same but production is mechanized. A machine fills trays of kernel-shaped holes with cornstarch to hold the candy in corn triangle shapes. The holes are partially filled with white syrup, then orange syrup, followed by yellow syrup. The mold is allowed to cool, the mixture hardens for about 24 hours, then a machine empties the trays, the kernels to fall into chutes, and finally the candy corn is glazed to make it shine.

7. Candy corn and candy corn flavor is big – you find it in drinks, bagels, cookies, and ice cream.

Nabisco has a limited-edition of candy-corn Oreos with a yellow-and-orange cream filling sandwiched between vanilla wafers.
There are also candy corn M&Ms with this description on Amazon: “Two classic candies join together to put a new spin on a traditional fall favorite.M&M’s candy corn white chocolate candies combine M&M’s chocolate candies and candy corn. In the distinctive orange, yellow and white candy corn colors, these bright candies will bring a festive and delicious approach to snacking and decorating this fall.”

8. A survey of Americans found:

46.8%think the whole piece of candy corn should be eaten at once
42.7% think you should be start eating at the narrow, white end
10.6% like to start eating at the wider yellow end

Guess How Many Calories Are In A Trick Or Treat Bag

October 28, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

What do you think: 3500, 5000, 7500??? Keep in mind that it takes 3500 calories (above your daily caloric needs to gain a pound.

A public heath expert estimated that, on average, a child in the US collects between 3,500 and 7,000 candy calories on Halloween night.

To burn off 7000 calories, a one hundred pound child would have to walk for almost 44 hours or play full-court basketball for 14.5 hours.

What’s In The Trick or Treat Bag?

A NYC mom wrote down what was in her daughter’s trick or treat bag after she returned home on Halloween. Then the curious mom calculated the calories.

Here’s what was in her daughter’s Trick or Treat bag:

8 Hershey’s Kisses (Peanut butter, regular, almond and caramel)

3 Hershey’s Bars

1 Starburst

1 Jolly Rancher

1 Jolly Rancher Stix

12 Peanut Butter Cups

1 Reese’s Fast Break Bar

3 Fun Size Snickers

1 M & Ms

3 Caramels

6 Jawbreakers

3 Skittles

2 Baby Ruths, Fun Size

3 Butter Fingers, Fun Size

5 Kit Kat, Fun Size

2 Peppermints

2 3 Musketeers

1 Hot Tamales

8 Hard Candies

2 SweetTarts

1 Cookie

1 Mini Dove Chocolate

14 Lollipops

2 Now and Laters

2 Super Bubbles

1 Milky Way, Mini

2 Mary Janes

Total calorie count of candy In the bag: 6653

What her daughter estimated she had already eaten from the bag:

1 Nestle Crunch

4 SweetTarts

1 Peppermint

2 Hard Candies

1 Ring Pop

2 Mini Boxes of Nerds

1 Snickers, Fun Size

1 Caramel

2 Twizzlers

Total calorie count of what had already been eaten: 585

Grand Total of calories from the Halloween candy haul: 7238

For more holiday eating tips, strategies, and information check out my book, The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

3 Tips To Avoid Pre-Halloween Sugar Overload

October 24, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Halloween conjures up images of ghosts, ghouls, witches – and candy corn, tootsie rolls, snickers, and kit-kats. The Halloween costumes vary depending on what’s trendy – and the Halloween candy varies depending on what’s on sale, what you buy, what you like or dislike, and what makes it’s way into the house in trick or treat bags.

Halloween happens. Trick or treating happens. Candy is around – everywhere. You’re probably going to eat some candy. So, make a plan for when and how much. If it’s one day of candy it’s no big deal – but, days and weeks worth of candy can definitely be a big and weighty deal.

But – you don’t have to attack the bags full of your favorite sweet stuff in the days and weeks leading up to Halloween. You know the scenario – you bought those big bags because they were such a good price – and then you end up having to buy more candy to give to trick or treaters because the candy you bought at such a bargain price has been devoured.

Three Tips To Avoid Eating Candy Before Halloween

Don’t buy candy ahead of time. It’s so darn easy to be swayed by the monster sized bags of midget candy bars or sweet tarts, or M&Ms, or tootsie roll pops. The bags are priced to sell and practically jump off the shelves at you as you walk down the aisles in the grocery store or drug store. The retailers are just itching to sell you candy nice and early so you have to come back for a repeat buying performance.
When you buy candy – even if it’s the day before or the day of Halloween, buy candy you hate – or at least dislike. Very simply – if you don’t like it, there’s less of a chance you’ll eat it. It doesn’t mean that you won’t eat it – just that it’s less likely that you will — and if you do, maybe it won’t be the whole bag.
If the candy does make its way into your house or your workplace – get it out of your sightline. It’s very simple: if you see it you eat it. And, we’re lazy – so the more energy you need to use to get to the candy, the less likely you are to do it. So, hide it in the back of the top shelf of the cabinet, or in the freezer, or in the basement, or in the garage. Be creative – just don’t forget where you’ve hidden it so that you have to buy more and then, months later, you find old Halloween candy when you’re cleaning out some random closet.

For more tips and strategies on handling holiday eating from Halloween right through Valentine’s Day be sure to read my new book, The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, coming soon to Kindle and Kindle readers.